The Lalgarh Movement, the PCAPA and the CPI (Maoist)

The vast areas of Jangal Mahal including Lalgarh have been in the grip of unbridled state terror for the last few months. There is a total ban on any meeting or rally. The media persons also are debarred from entering into those areas. Three villagers were brutally killed by the joint forces on 2nd January last. In the name of arresting the Maoists, witch-hunting is going on in various villages. Very recently a meeting was taking place in the premises of Bulanpur High School organized by a newly formed platform of the peasants called è¡³hi Banchao CommitteeÔ¨e purpose of the meeting was to put forward some demands of the peasants. The Joint Forces encircled the meeting and carried on an inhuman torture on the peasants. Chhatradhar Mahato, the leader of the PeopleÃ¯mmittee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), arrested under UAPA was served with the charge-sheet within an astonishingly short time. A few days ago the Joint Forces arrested two members of the PCAPA, but they were not produced in the court. It is suspected that they were killed in cold blood. It can be said, in brief, that the Left Front government, aided by the Congress-led central government has unleashed an unprecedented state-terror in Jangal Mahal (including Lalgarh) to crush the resistance struggle that has been developing in the area for a year.

But still the protests and the resistance are continuing in multifarious forms. The entire Communist Revolutionary camp, too, is busy analyzing the role of the PCAPA as well as the CPI (Maoist) in this movement. The debates and discussions centering round the evaluation of this movement are giving rise to new thoughts and ideas. The communist revolutionary forces are being compelled to take some position vis-à­¶is this unique movement of West Bengal. In this article we, on our part, will try to do the same. But definitely our appraisal of the movement will be of primary nature and incomplete, too, for the movement is still going on. We are giving our assessment of the movement on the basis of the information we have been able to gather and the evaluation of the movement of the CPI (Maoist) that we have got in their writings.

a) Alchiki script of the Santhali language has to be introduced as a medium of education from the primary to the university level from the academic year 2009-2010. b) Irrigation and drinking water has to be provided to the villagers gratis. c) Land has to be distributed among the poor and the landless peasants. d) 100 days work has to be ensured for those able to work. e) Primary schools and health centres have to be established in each village and Panchayat respectively, etc. Along with the demands, village committees also were formed, comprising 5 men and 5 women in each of them. Village centres consisting of ten villages were formed as well. The PCAPA comprised 35 members, 23 of them being men and 12 others being women. The democratic character of this organization evolved from the grass-roots level helped this struggle to extend far and wide. Although a local struggle, it exercised a deep influence among the people of the whole state. The movement put forward a simple question: if the police, è¥ saviourï¦ the State can oppress the people in such a barbaric manner, why would the police not apologize for this? On the other hand, there were social and economic demands that mobilized innumerable people around the movement. As we have stated before, the PCAPA showed extreme ingenuity and creativity in developing new forms of movements. This committee showed extraordinary skill in using every form of movement that a peopleà­¯vement can call for. Naturally, therefore, this struggle was able to create turmoil in the entire country. This much for the first phase of the movement.

There is a popular notion about the genesis of the Lalgarh movement and that is that this movement could develop mainly because of the underdevelopment of this region. And there would have been no Lalgarh movement if the question of underdevelopment could have been solved or at least a process could have been initiated to that end. This attitude belittles the importance of the Lalgarh movement. Most of the regions of West Bengal are victims of underdevelopment. But Lalgarh type of movement is nowhere to be found. The people of Jangal Mahal have organized themselves against the atrocities perpetrated by the state as well as for the protection of their sense of dignity and their rights. It is true that had there been no question of underdevelopment, i.e., the question of food, clothing, medical aid etc. the material basis of the movement would not exist. Apart from these problems, the social isolation and similar other highly sensitive factors also constituted the basis of this movement.

The Lalgarh movement has assumed great importance for another reason. The struggle of Singur and Nandigram has helped to do away with the long-standing drought of peopleà­¯vement in West Bengal. One-party rule of CPI (M) weighed heavily on its people. These movements undermined the very foundation of this autocratic rule and an atmosphere of protests started prevailing throughout West Bengal. But what is important to note is that after a phase of the movement had passed, the dominance of CPI (M) was only replaced by that of Trinamool Congress. Land acquisition in Nandigram, carried on under SEZ Act was stopped by the West Bengal government under pressure of the movement, but with this the struggle came to an end. The people of Nandigram or the èµ­i Uchhed Pratirodh Committeeá²¥ no more in need of raising the demand of repealing SEZ Act. Trinamool Congress has undoubtedly established its sway over the area. Almost all the parliamentary parties in our country are very adept at utilizing the mass movements as a means of attaining power. After having done that, they lose no time in protecting all the reactionary Acts existing in the country. During the movements of Nandigram and Singur the Trinamool Congress in a way raised the demand of cancellation of SEZ Act. But as soon as the party joined the UPA government, the demand was put to an end. In this backdrop the movement of Lalgarh and of Jangal Mahal as a whole has played an exceptional role. Till date, no parliamentary party representing the reactionary ruling classes has been able to utilize this movement to their own interest. It is, therefore, quite natural that the Central and the State governments, the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the CPI (M) have been opposing this movement with all their might. There may have differences among them so far as the forms of opposition are concerned; but in content all of them are the same.

The following are, in brief, the main points of our primary evaluation of the Lalgarh movement.

(a)Ô¨is struggle has essentially developed in course of a staunch opposition to the autocratic onslaughts of the government.

(f)Ô¨is movement has taken up various social initiatives. e.g. to run alternative health centres, sinking of tubewells in the villages, conducting movement against drinking of liquor, and also against the Sponge iron factories, the source of acute pollution.

On the contrary, the PCAPA has adopted many measures in their movement that were not at all helpful for them. Some of them are as follows:

(a) This organization that developed in a democratic process and involved innumerable people, in the later phase imposed a blanket ban on other political parties, excepting, of course, the CPI (Maoist). This step went against the very spirit of the movement. Considering the fact that Lalgarh was never declared a liberated zone and that the PCAPA was conducting just a democratic peopleà­¯vement, why such extreme step as necessary? We are not speaking here about the reactionary ruling class parties. Our question is why even some anti-imperialist anti-feudal parties and some vacillating political forces, too, were not allowed to operate?

(b) Although the movement has explored various forms of mass movement, the leaders of the movement hardly explained the rationale of the indiscriminate individual killings and their relation with the mass movement.

(c) Many of the punitive measures adopted against the CPI (M) cadres did not call forth the support of the people.

The Lalgarh Movement and the role of the CPI (Maoist)

If our scope of writing had remained confined to the role of the PCAPA vis-à­¶is the Lalgarh movement, we would have stopped here. But we think without a discussion on the role of the CPI (Maoist) in this movement no evaluation is possible.

Before the present phase of Lalgarh movement broke out, there were activities of the CPI (Maoist) in that region. The party played an important role in inspiring the PCAPA to lead the movement, although it should be admitted that the initial revolt in Lalgarh was mainly spontaneous. Subsequently the party started controlling the movement fully. It is at the time of setting the house of Anuj Pandey, the CPI (M) leader, on fire that the Maoist leader Bikash appeared on the scene. It was at this time that the CPI (Maoist) declared that it was the party that was exercising the leadership. At this juncture the Joint Forces started its campaign and the role of the PCAPA leadership started to diminish. Kishanji assumed the supreme leadership and what happened from then on is known to all of us. We shall cite some excerpts from an interview of Com. Ganapati, the General Secretary of the party to understand its appraisal of the movement. In that interview given to Rahul Panditia, Com Ganapati said, è¥ Lalgarh mass uprising has no doubt raised new hopes among the oppressed people and the entire revolutionary camp of West BengalÈ¥ further states, è¥ upsurge was beyond our expectation. In fact, it was the common people with the assistance of advanced elements influenced by revolutionary politics who played a crucial role in the formation of tactics. They formed their own organization, put forth their charter of demands, worked out various mass forms of struggle despite the brutal attacks of the police and social fascist Harmad gangs.ã¯­. Ganapati continues to say, è¥ course of the development of the movement, of course, will depend on the level of consciousness and preparedness of the people of the region. The party will take this into consideration while formulating its tactics. The initiative of the masses will be released fully.æ¥²y pertinently he has informed us, á¬§arh also has some distinctive features such as high degree of participation of women, a genuinely democratic charter and a wider mobilization of Adivasis.ï³°an>

In this context, we would like to draw the attention of the CPI (Maoist) comrades to another problem. CPI (Maoist) is reluctant to understand that in the vast rural areas of our country including West Bengal, feudalism has been fast disappearing. We have also to keep in mind that the people (mostly tribals) living in hilly and jungle areas constitute 7% of the total Indian population (8 crore of the hundred fourteen crore). True they are the most oppressed in our country. This is one of the reasons why in these areas guerrilla warfare as an effective mode of struggle is becoming relevant, at times in Andhra Pradesh, or in Bihar, or in Karnataka. Later on these areas of struggle suffered heavy losses. Still later, their armed struggle in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa attracted much attention. But can these struggles in some pockets decide the course of revolution in such a vast country as ours? Can these struggles hold back the development of capitalism in India? Can these struggles rouse the millions of peasant masses throughout India? Can these struggles organize the peasant movements in the plains of India where innumerable peasants committed suicide in the recent past? Is it not noteworthy that the CPI (Maoist) could not play any important role in the anti-SEZ movement in India?

Despite all this, it has to be admitted that a resistance movement is going on against the terrible onslaught of the police and paramilitary forces of the state in Jangal Mahal including Lalgarh. But the emotional appeal that this movement created in its initial phase is now on the decline. This movement gave rise to great possibilities; but since it deviated into a different channel, it failed to rouse the people. The whole fight has been converted into one between a few Maoist cadres and the CPI (M), or one between the Maoists and the State. The armed intervention of the Maoist Party and its hyperactivity are becoming obstacles to the development of peopleà£¯nsciousness and their spontaneous participation in the movement.

The entire state-power is active to crush the Lalgarh movement. All the ruling class parties are united to destroy it. Under the circumstances, can the Party not evolve a different tactical line to save and further develop this movement? It has by now become already clear that a mechanical application of the CPI (Maoist) line would not solve the problem. What is needed is to be objective in evaluating the movement and to be more creative in developing a set of tactics.

The Lalgarh Movement and some Reflections of the Communist Revolutionary Camp

The basic error of both á®¤hikkhaná®¤ á²¸io Dishaé³ that they are viewing all democratic movements in terms of å§¯tiationsÓ¥condly, they have negated the possibility that some movements can go beyond its own limits to create new prospects of movement and thereby further develop the class struggle. They try to analyze all the movements by casting them in a definitive dye. Thirdly, because of this error, they have fallen victim to rightist deviation. They complain that CPI (Maoist) has imposed its political thinking on the Lalgarh movement. But they are not considering the fact that they, too, are doing the same. They are viewing the movement in the light of ä¯°pingï² å´´ing a stop to à·¨ich means that when they take upon themselves the task of exercising leadership over any movement, they start thinking at the very outset when to ä¯°à¯² å´ a stop toä¨¥ movement.

We are not now going into further details. But we would like to put forward some experience of Russian revolution. We hope the readers will pardon us for our long quotation from the book é³´ory of the CPSU (B).ï³°an>

î �pril 4, 1912, during a strike in the Lena goldfields in Siberia, over 500 workers were killed or wounded upon the order of the tsarist officer of the gendarmerie. The shooting down of an unarmed body of Lena miners who were peacefully proceeding to negotiate with the management stirred the whole country. This new bloody deed of tsarist autocracy was committed to break an economic strike of the miners and thus please the masters of the Lena goldfields, the British capitalists. The British capitalists and their Russian partners derived huge profits from the Lena goldfields – over 7,000,000 rubles annually â¹ most shamelessly exploiting the workers. They paid the workers miserable wages and supplied them with rotten food unfit to eat. Unable to endure the oppression and humiliation any longer 6000 workers of the Lena goldfields went on strike.ï³°an>

å ·ere so dazed and shocked that we could not at all find words to express our feeling. Whatever protest we made would be but a pale reflection of the anger that seethed in the hearts of all of us. Nothing can help us, neither tears nor protests, but an organized mass struggle.ï¿½he workers of one group of factories declared in their resolution.

The Lena events were like a hurricane which rent the atmosphere of å¡£eã²¥ated by the Stolypin regime.

This is what Com. Stalin wrote in this connection in 1912 in the St. Petersburg Bolshevik newspaper, Zvezda (star):

è¥ Lena shooting has broken the ice of silence and the river of the peopleà­¯vement has begun to flow. The ice is broken…! All that was evil and pernicious in the present regime, all the ills of much-suffering Russia were focused in the one fact, the Lena events. That is why it was the Lena shooting that served as a signal for the strikes and demonstrations.ï³°an>

è¥ efforts of the Liquidators and Trotskyites to bury the revolution had been in vain. The Lena events showed that the forces of revolution were alive, that a tremendous store of revolutionary energy had accumulated in the working class. The May Day Strikes of 1912 involved about 4, 00,000 workers, These strikes bore a marked political character and were held under the Bolshevik revolutionary slogans of a democratic republic, an 8-hour day, and the confiscation of all the landed estates. These main slogans were designed to unite not only the broad masses of the workers but also the peasants and soldiers for a revolutionary onslaught on the autocracy.

è¥ huge May Day strike of the proletariat of all Russia and the accompanying street demonstrations, revolutionary proclamations, and the revolutionary speeches to gatherings of workers, have clearly shown that Russia has entered the phase of a rise in the revolutionæ ·rote Lenin in an article entitled è¥ Revolutionary Riseì¯³pan>

Although a struggle of just one mine, the event of Lena goldmine developed the political struggles of the entire country. The Bolsheviks played the principal role in advancing the whole process.

Afterword

The struggles of Jangal Mahal including Lalgarh are still going on. The reactionary state-power is about to crush the mass uprising into smithereens. Our modest appeal to the leadership of the CPI (Maoist) is to reconsider and re-evaluate the tactics they have adopted basing on the assessment of the objective situation. The difference of opinion between the CPI (Maoist) and other Communist revolutionaries is one which is essentially a difference within the communist revolutionary camp. Keeping this in mind a debate should be continued mainly within the organizations and at times, for the promotion of ideological standard of the revolutionary cadres, it should partially come out in the open. We should keep this in mind that no difference of opinion can make the revolutionaries forget that ï ²ebel is justified×¥ should, therefore, be on our alert that no criticism or self-criticism can strengthen the hands of the enemy. In spite of the difference of opinion all revolutionary forces and revolutionary individuals should get united more strongly in support of the Lalgarh movement. Basing ourselves on a definite political programme, we should keep trying to bring about a political polarization in the society. Let solidarity movements of the workers, peasants and other toiling masses surge forward in support of the movement on Jangal Mahal, including Lalgarh.